I figured it's been awhile since I've blogged about how we are doing with breastfeeding. I've had alot of people ask me "How DO you do it?". So, now that the girls and I are very well established in our breastfeeding relationship, I can share more. And hopefully this post will help, motivate and inspire more women to breastfeed. Even and especially MoM's. I blogged
here about it. And
here. And
here. And I'm sure in a few more places. It was all-consuming for me at one time. Determination to breastfeed these triplets became who and what I was. There was NO.FREAKING.WAY that these babies were going to get formula. I hate formula. I hate everything about it. I hate that it is so readily available and accepted as a food for our babies. I hate that it is believed among so many to be 'as good for our babies' as breastmilk (it's NOT!). I hate that I hear so many mamas' say 'my baby was on formula and he/she is just fine'. I hate that WIC, a state funded program that provides food to lower income families, offers formula to Moms as acceptable nourishment for their babies as a CHOICE and not only if absolutely necessary. I think WIC should try harder to encourage breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is NOT easy. It takes alot of patience and hard work. On the part of the mother and the baby. It IS what is best for your baby, regardless of what anyone who uses formula wants to believe, BREASTMILK IS NORMAL. Formula is NOT. It's manufactured. Man-made. And should only be used if it is deemed absolutely necessary. This has always been my opinion and I will continue to stand by it.
Ok. Mini-rant over. Now, on to us. How are we doing? How is the breastfeeding going?
It.is.awesome. Seriously. I thank the Gods, Goddesses, and all the other higher powers that be, every single day that I am breastfeeding my babies. Yes, all 3 of them. My most favorite thing that I get asked when I am out and about?
Friendly curious person, upon seeing me NIP: Are you really nursing ALL THREE OF THEM?
Me: No, just this one. She's my favorite :)
Ok, so I'm being sarcastic but really? I know it's hard to believe but yes, I am nursing all 3 of them. No, I didn't just pick one to breastfeed. I truly do exclusively breastfeed all 3 babies. I wish it weren't so shocking. Then maybe it would be more reassuring that it happens more often than not.
So, how DO we do it? It's really very simple. The hungriest babies get to eat first. The one who ate the least and who ate first the last time, gets first choice the next time around. Yes, there are times when I have a baby fussing while waiting to eat. Luckily, they don't take a long time to eat, and if the fussing gets too bad, I will let one baby get 'satisfied' then put a fussy baby on to eat and then follow back up with the original baby. I'll try to do a basic outline with their ages. If it's too boring, skip it and read more after. This will be a 'timeline' of sorts. Please keep in mind that the 'days' are all approximate. My memory of the true days are so sketchy so I'm just estimating the time on here. I know I'm fairly close, I also don't have time to go back through all the blog posts and paper work to get exact dates and such. But this will give you a good idea. A ballpark, so to say.
Let me start by saying that before the girls were born, I had a plan. Baby A, boob a. Baby B, boob b. Baby C, bottle. Next feeding, rotate. Sounds easy enough right? Well, let's just say, (if your reading this because your pregnant with multiples) if you have a plan, and it doesn't go as planned, IT'S OK. Try something else! Better yet, ditch the planning and just adopt a carefree-come-as-you-go-wait-and-see-roll-with-the-punches-go-with-the-flow attitude. Trust me. I am the most meticulously planned person ever. In the multiples game, plans don't always work.
Birth: Babies are receiving donor milk in the NICU. I'm pumping every 2-3 hours. 24 hours a day. The babies get my milk when I get any, but it's mostly donor milk through a tube in their nose.
Day 5/6: At this time the babies are at about 50/50 donor milk, mommy milk. All through the tubes. I try every feeding to latch them on, but they are still not quite getting it. It is very discouraging. It's stressful. It's hard. Still pumping every 2-3 hours 24/7.
Day 10ish: A nurse suggests bottling to strengthen their jaws. Telling me that it's easier for a baby to bottle feed them to breastfeed. I finally agree. I now know this to be not true. Breastfeeding is NATURAL. Bottling is not. A baby has to attempt to form his mouth to a bottle. A babys' mouth will naturally form to a breast. I was told that nursing them wore them out. Since they were preemies we had to save their energy for growing. Not true. Yes, breastfeeding is tiring, but also, if the NICU were to allow triplets to EBF, it sure would mess with their 3 and 4 hour schedules now wouldn't it? Of course a bottle is less tiring, it just drips out.
Day 16: After almost a week of bottling the babies are finally ready to go home. I am still p.u.m.p.i.n.g. All.the.time. Around the clock. Fix bottles, feed babies, pump while feeding. Start all over again in an hour. I do not, for the life of me, understand how or why a woman would pump, just to turn around and bottle it to her child. Stupid, extra steps. I haven't pumped since the babies got good at nursing.
End of Month #1Beginning of month #2:: Trying so hard to tandem nurse. It's a joke. I get all set up. Get a baby all latched on and good to go, try to latch on the other baby and baby #1 pops off. Get baby #2 on, go back to latch on baby #1, baby #2 pops off. All the while baby #3 is patiently waiting. It's usually Emilia. This goes on until I finally get them both on, and it lasts maybe 2-3 minutes before they fall asleep or pop off, or I just give up and give them bottles. And resort to the pump. This happened ALOT. It was really hard to continue at this point. I had everyone telling me that I did my best and it was time to let it go. EVERYONE. Um, do they not know me very well? Nuh-uh! No way. I'd come way too far to give up now.
Mid-month #2/End month #2: Stilllllllll pumping! And bottling. But this is where the catching on starts. This is when I got about a 2o minute feed out of Rosalie. Weigh her, only to discover she took in only 30 cc's (they were taking in 60-70 via bottle at this point). It is VERY hard to not give in to the numbers. This is also about the time that I started to really look at each baby and evaluate them as individuals.
This is where the light bulb finally came on. And this is where
Dr. Jack Newman and a student of his, Helen, saved us. This is the 'If I knew then, what I know now' moment. I would never had bottled. It made this process harder, although I do think it got us out of the NICU faster. I would have used a system called
SNS. I believe it would have been a much easier, faster, better way than bottling. If you mention it and get blown off, PURSUE IT. It's worth a try before the bottle. I promise.
Month #3/Now: No more pumping!!! The babies get it. Now, we develop our 'system'. 2 babies nurse at a time. Always. It's time efficient. The 2 hungriest babies get first dibs. Or if a baby just needs comfort or a quick drink, it's always available. We EBF. On demand. Always. I mean, if you get thirsty, don't you get a drink? I do. I don't wait every 3-4 hours to get something to drink. Why should my baby? But, sometimes one has to wait. They are good at being patient. The way I see it, it's a good lesson to learn early on with triplets.
Nightime? Yep. They are even EBF at night. There is the occasion where all 3 wake at the same time to eat and we apply the same theory. The last one to eat has to wait. With Daddy. And it's not that long. No more than 15 minutes. I'm not saying they like it, but they do it. What choice do they have? One mama, 2 boobs, 3 babies. Simple math. And it doesn't happen alot. Maybe twice a week.
So, do you just sit around and nurse babies all day long? No. I really don't. At first, yes, it's a commitment. It does take a long time for the babies to eat and by the time you finish that 3rd baby, the first two are ready to go again. So, for 3-4 months you have to commit yourself fully to doing nothing but nursing your babies. So what? In the big scheme of things, it's a mere 3 months. 90 days. Maybe 120 days. OF THEIR LIFE. What else is more important? Nothing. I will say, if multiples are your first babies, do this. Plan to stay in bed breastfeeding babies all day every day for the first month. I kid you not. All.day.every.day. That will get you on the right path to EBF. I promise. Now, at almost 10 months, it takes me a total of 30 minutes every 4 hours or so to feed them. That's it. Soooo worth it, right?
Unless of course you would rather pack a suitcase of bottles and formula every time you leave the house.
So, I'm re-reading this and hoping that it shed some light on HOW we do this. I'm not sure it does. I HOPE it does. I'm not sure I can even tell anyone how to do what we do. For one, the first 6 months are a blur. For another, I really think it's something that you have to be in the heart of to really get it.
Look at that face!
